What makes fundraisers tick? Research is underway
Howard Lake | 27 May 2022 | News
What kinds of people are fundraisers? What are they like as individuals and as fundraising professionals? Research to understand this is getting underway.
The Institute of Sustainable Philanthropy’s latest research is trying to understand what drives fundraisers’ motivation at work and thus what either “charges” or “drains” them. It is also interested in how people experience being employed as a fundraiser and specifically what contributes to their overall sense of wellbeing.
Professor Adrian Sargeant explains: “We’re drawing on the brand new science of Philanthropic Psychology to look at both who fundraisers are (as a person) and who they are as a fundraising professional”.
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The research is supported by Philanthropy and Fundraising International, and follows on from their major research project in 2014 on what makes Great Fundraising, produced by Professor Adrian Sargeant and Professor Jen Shang.
Take part in the research
The research phase is underway and fundraisers in the UK and internationally are invited to participate.
Professor Sargeant commented: “It doesn’t matter where you are in the world – we’d love to hear from you.”
He estimates that the survey should take up to 15 minutes to complete. All responses “will be treated as strictly confidential”.
If you participate in the survey you can request to receive a copy of the final report via email.
Two versions of the survey
There are two surveys.
- The first is for people who are currently employed in a fundraising/development role in a charity/nonprofit.
- The second is for people who have been employed as a fundraiser in a charity/nonprofit in the past but who are NOT currently.
For enquiries about the survey please contact ha*****@ph********************.uk .
- The New Fundraisers by Beth Breeze (2017)
- Meet the fundraiser: Kitty Gardner at Women’s Trust (13 September 2017)
- Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology launches (29 October 2019)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.